Huntress of the High Desert – 10.5.15 – Mountain City, NV

If you know my hunting past, you know that I have never had mule deer tag soup. Every hunt that I have gone on, I have harvested an animal, whether it was a buck or a doe. Okay, so the does were when I had a junior tag. Proud to say I’ve shot all bucks since then!

And I wasn’t going to let this hunt stop that streak. After not having shot anything since 2013 when I shot my first antelope, I was itching to feel that uncontrollable joy of harvesting an animal. I didn’t care if it was a trophy 4×4 or dinky forked horn, I was going to get something. I even packed my lucky beanie that I wore 15 years ago on my first hunt ever. I was determined.

Hunting in the High Desert – 9.1.15 – Northeast Nevada

If you read my post on my bull elk hunt last year (here), you’d know that me and elk have a love/hate relationship; as in I love to hunt them and they hate to let me shoot one. This year, my dad and I both got cow elk depredation tags. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a tag handed out to control the elk population more than what a normal hunting season does.

I was stoked to get this tag. My 4th elk tag in 9 years and I was going to finally be successful! I’ll just tell you right now, that it wasn’t the case. Elk: 4 – Me: 0.

Lassen Volcanic National Park – 9.7.15 – Lassen, CA

It had been almost 20 years since I had been into the park. And even then, we went 2 miles in and turned around. This time though, I got to be able to drive through the entire park and it was amazing. If you remember back in December (here), my boyfriend and I only made it a little ways in because the snow had the park closed down.

I was beyond excited that it was a gorgeous day to go visit. It was an impromptu trip, so we weren’t prepared to go hiking at all. It was more of a get-out-and-snap-photos type of trip. But it was the best. Matthew and I had made a pact that we would visit every national park that there is in our lifetime. This was the first one to cross off our list! We went into the museum and store at the Loomis Ranger Station, where we picked up a patch and a passport book for the national parks. Stamped it and now it’s onto the next!

Hiking with the Pups – 5.23.15 – Tahoe National Forest, CA

A year ago, I would’ve been exploring the lovely state of Iowa. This year, I kept it close to home. Matt was home for the weekend and we needed to take the dogs out for a run/walk. He wanted to take me to a little river he walked a few times with the dogs before.

Finding History in Nevada – 3.21.15 – Winnemucca Lake, NV

It all started with an article called “20 Truths About Nevada You Never Would Have Guessed“. I knew quite a few of them having lived in Nevada for 19 years now. But I never knew about the petroglyphs that were so closed to where I lived. They intrigued me. I had to see them. What a great part of history that was so easily accessible and fascinating. I had convinced my dad and boyfriend to go with me.

Valentine’s Day Fishing – 2.14.15 – Frenchman’s Lake, CA

Wow, it’s been a hot minute since I last posted about an adventure (more like three months)! I’ve been slacking majorly in the blogging and adventure departments. I haven’t had as many adventures as I would have liked to so far this year, but hopefully that’s about to change.

Half Moon Bay – 1.10.15 – California

Finally, another adventure! This one I was really excited about. I was going down for the weekend to pre-celebrate my birthday with my boyfriend. He was working down in the Bay Area, so I made the trek on a Friday to go see him. We didn’t know what we were going to do that weekend, so it made me even more excited. The drive was smooth sailing… until Berkeley. Traffic. An hour sitting in traffic wasn’t my idea of a good start, until I got to the hotel and the sunset made it all worth it.

Burney Falls – 12.26.14 – California

After leaving Lassen, we headed up Highway 44 towards our turnoff to Susanville. Matt asked me, “Want to go to Burney Falls? We have the time.” “Umm, I don’t want to get home too late because of the dogs. But I think…” “Screw it. We’re going.” And off we went up Highway 89.

On the drive, it was pretty neat to see all of the burn area from recent wildfires and how much land it covered. They saved so many homes from danger. It even crossed the road and threatened some homes on that side. I wish I had taken pictures of it, but I didn’t think of it until just now.

Lassen National Park – 12.26.14 – California

I haven’t been to Lassen National Park since I was 8 years old. And about the only thing I remember about it was that it smelled like rotten eggs. I had gone with my best friend and her family. We went camping at Lake Almanor and this was a side trip for one of the days. I honestly can’t remember much more of the park than that.

This time though, was with Matt and we were driving home from Redding. Matt had worked for the forest service, so he knew a good deal about the park. He wanted to see if the road through was open. He wasn’t sure because it had just snowed two days before. We made the turn onto Highway 89 from Highway 44 towards Manzanita Lake. We got about as far as the Loomis Ranger Station before the road was blocked stating it was closed. So we turned around and headed back down.